Chapter 12: Soul Heaven

Watching Wang Ziwen retreat, unwilling to accept defeat, Yan Zimo made no effort to hide her contempt. If Wang Ziwen had shown a little more backbone just now, she might’ve respected him somewhat. Even if he’d ended up getting demoted badly, Yan Zimo would still have come away with a good impression of him.

She’d also spotted a resentful look in his eyes. He didn’t seem like the forgiving sort, and he might try to trip her up later.

But with her strength, she could handle whatever came her way. Whatever trouble he brought, she’d deal with it. And if he really went too far, she wouldn’t mind using him to make an example of someone.

At that thought, a flash of electricity flickered in Yan Zimo’s eyes—sharp and cold!

With the buzzing fly finally gone, Yan Zimo could enjoy some peace and quiet. She pulled out her phone, planning to relax a little before they reached the Gansu Military Base.

She opened a game—Love Live!

That’s right, Love Live. She’d been a hardcore otaku, after all—though now she should probably call herself a hardcore otaku girl. It was only natural to have Love Live downloaded on her phone!

Her fingers danced across the screen, moving so fast they left faint afterimages. That was how quick Yan Zimo’s hands were. Thirty years of being single hadn’t been for nothing.

By the way, after Yan Zimo became a girl, her body’s age had gone straight from her original thirties to nineteen. In other words, she’d been only fourteen when the apocalypse first began.

Yan Zimo had been tapping away at her phone when she suddenly frowned. Just as she reached a particularly exciting part of the game, a notification popped up at the top of the screen: “Network connection lost. Please reconnect.”

“Damn, why’d the connection have to drop now?”

With nothing else to do, Yan Zimo put her phone away and looked out the window. But the moment she did, something seemed off.

At some point, the sky outside had gone pitch-black. Dark clouds covered the entire sky, with flashes of lightning darting through them. It was a terrifying sight.

“That’s strange. The military must’ve confirmed the route before we set out. If there’d been a thunderstorm along the way, they would’ve known about it, wouldn’t they?” Yan Zimo was puzzled. This storm didn’t seem normal.

Suddenly, Yan Zimo noticed something strange. It looked as if two patches of light were flickering among the clouds. But when she looked closer, she realized they were reflections in the window.

“Wait… are my eyes glowing? Qianxue, do I look strange right now? Like, are my eyes glowing or anything?” Yan Zimo wanted to know if Ye Qianxue had noticed anything unusual about her.

Ye Qianxue looked her over several times. After confirming there was nothing unusual, she answered with complete certainty, “At least as far as I can tell, there’s nothing strange about you, Sister-sama.”

“Could I be the only one who can see it?” Yan Zimo wondered if she was seeing things.

Yan Zimo forced herself to calm down and considered all the possibilities. In the end, she settled on the most plausible answer.

“Could it be that I’m so close to this thunderstorm that my Esper ability is resonating with it?”

“What’s wrong with Sister-sama? She’s acting so strangely, and she asked Qianxue such a weird question. Are her eyes glowing? Sister-sama’s eyes are beautiful, sure, but what does she mean, glowing?” Ye Qianxue couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

“Did something happen, Sister-sama? You can tell Qianxue if it did.”

“No, it’s nothing. I just feel like this storm appeared way too suddenly. Something about it seems off.”

“Off?” Ye Qianxue looked out the window, a question mark practically written across her face.

Seeing that Ye Qianxue still didn’t get it, Yan Zimo flicked her on the forehead. “Doesn’t this storm seem like it appeared too suddenly? If even one bolt of lightning struck us, it could cause a lot of damage. The military should’ve checked the weather in this area before setting out. If they’d known there was going to be a storm here, they definitely wouldn’t have taken this route.”

“You mean… there’s something wrong with the weather, Sister-sama?”

“Exactly!”

…

Meanwhile, inside the helicopter carrying Yan Shan and Huang Tao, people were bustling about nonstop.

“Well? Have you figured it out? How did we suddenly end up flying into a thunderstorm?”

Huang Tao looked grim. A mistake this serious meant he, as commander-in-chief of the Jiangning Military Base rescue team, couldn’t escape responsibility.

Yan Shan watched the storm outside the window, his expression dark and unreadable. No one could tell what he was thinking.

“Report! The weather bureau’s original forecast was correct. There weren’t supposed to be any signs of a thunderstorm in this area. But—but…”

Seeing his subordinate stammering in panic, Huang Tao grew irritated. “But what? Stop stumbling over your words and spit it out!”

“Yes, sir! According to the latest information from the weather bureau, this thundercloud formed just now. It took less than thirty minutes. They estimate it’ll soon develop into a super typhoon at least as powerful as a Category 14 storm! And judging by its path, it’ll reach the Yongliang Military Administrative Region in five days.”

Huang Tao was stunned by the report. He snatched it from the officer and read it carefully.

“What?! A thundercloud this huge formed in less than thirty minutes? How’s that possible? And it’s still growing!”

The report matched the officer’s account exactly, and Huang Tao could hardly believe it.

He turned to Yan Shan, wanting to hear what he thought.

“You can go back to your duties.” Yan Shan dismissed the officer, then gazed out the window and said calmly, “In my opinion, this storm was created by someone.”

His words sent shockwaves through the room!

Huang Tao’s throat went dry, and his heart began to pound. What was this guy talking about? Created by someone? What a joke!

Seeing Huang Tao’s disbelief, Yan Shan continued, “You don’t have to take my word for it. I’m not completely sure, but I can sense a faint energy fluctuation inside those thunderclouds. It’s like the energy fluctuations of an Esper.”

Huang Tao seemed to realize something. He called the officer back in and gave him an order. “Tell command to use the satellite to scan the center of the storm immediately. Hurry!” By the time he said “hurry,” Huang Tao’s voice had grown hoarse.

Yan Shan continued to stare out the window as if nothing had happened. But his clenched fist revealed that he wasn’t nearly as calm as he looked.

A short while later, a clear satellite image appeared on Huang Tao’s tablet.

Huang Tao studied the image with a grave expression. The thundercloud was already beginning to turn into a typhoon. The white air currents had formed a vast spiral, covering a huge area.

After studying the satellite image again and again, Huang Tao fixed his gaze on the eye of the storm. “Zoom in on the center of the eye.”

“Yes, sir!”

In the enlarged satellite image, a blurry shadow was clearly visible at the center of the typhoon’s eye. There was no doubt about it—it was a person!

Huang Tao was speechless. Everything he thought he knew about Espers had been turned upside down.

“Old Shan, let me ask you something. Can a Ninth Tier Esper change the weather like this?”

Yan Shan took a deep breath. “Yes! But the area they can affect is limited. There’s no way they could cover an entire stretch of sky with a typhoon like the one in front of us!”

Huang Tao thought of a possibility. “Then that means…”

In the deathly quiet conference room, Yan Shan’s calm voice rang out. “This is what lies beyond the Ninth Tier—Soul Heaven!”